The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
In law,receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver –a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others,including tangible and intangible assets and rights" –especially in cases where a company cannot meet its financial obligations and is said to be insolvent. The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in the English chancery courts,where receivers were appointed to protect real property. Receiverships are also a remedy of last resort in litigation involving the conduct of executive agencies that fail to comply with constitutional or statutory obligations to populations that rely on those agencies for their basic human rights.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational health insurance and services company based in Minnetonka,Minnesota. Selling insurance products under UnitedHealthcare,and health care services and care delivery aided by technology and data under Optum,it is the world's eleventh-largest company by revenue and the largest health care company by revenue.
The United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania is a district level federal court with jurisdiction over approximately one half of Pennsylvania. The court was created in 1901 by subdividing the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The court is under the jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
James L. Graham is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
Henry Edward Hudson is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Edwin Michael Kosik was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Timothy J. Savage is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Mark Arthur Ciavarella Jr. is an American convicted felon and former President Judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre,Pennsylvania,who was involved,along with fellow judge Michael Conahan,in the "Kids for cash" scandal in 2008,for which he was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison in 2011.
The kids for cash scandal centered on judicial kickbacks to two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre,Pennsylvania,US. In 2008,judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were convicted of accepting money in return for imposing harsh adjudications on juveniles to increase occupancy at a private prison operated by PA Child Care.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA),formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and colloquially as Obamacare,is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23,2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment,it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
Michael T. Conahan is an American convicted felon and former judge. He received a J.D. degree from Temple University and went on to serve from 1994 to 2007 as judge on the Court of Common Pleas. During the last four years of his tenure,he was the presiding judge of the county.
PA Child Care is a juvenile detention center in Pittston Township,Pennsylvania. It was opened in February 2003. It has a sister company,Western PA Child Care,in Butler County,Pennsylvania. Treatment at both facilities is provided by Mid Atlantic Youth Services,and both were involved in the kids for cash scandal in 2008. Gregory Zappala took sole ownership of the company when he purchased co-owner Robert Powell's share in June 2008.
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius,567 U.S. 519 (2012),is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court upheld Congress's power to enact most provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA),commonly called Obamacare,and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (HCERA),including a requirement for most Americans to pay a penalty for forgoing health insurance by 2014. The Acts represented a major set of changes to the American health care system that had been the subject of highly contentious debate,largely divided on political party lines.
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA),there have been numerous actions in federal courts to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation. They include challenges by states against the ACA,reactions from legal experts with respect to its constitutionality,several federal court rulings on the ACA's constitutionality,the final ruling on the constitutionality of the legislation by the U.S. Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius,and notable subsequent lawsuits challenging the ACA. The Supreme Court upheld ACA for a third time in a June 2021 decision.
Kids for Cash is a 2013 documentary film about the "kids for cash" scandal which unfolded in 2008 over judicial kickbacks in Wilkes-Barre,Pennsylvania. Two judges were found guilty of accepting kickbacks in exchange for sending thousands of juveniles to detention centers when probation or a lesser penalty would have been appropriate. Some juveniles were sent to detention centers for incidents as minor as theft of a CD from Walmart.
Wendy Beetlestone is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Zubik v. Burwell,578 U.S. ___ (2016),was a case before the United States Supreme Court on whether religious institutions other than churches should be exempt from the contraceptive mandate,a regulation adopted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires non-church employers to cover certain contraceptives for their female employees. Churches are already exempt under those regulations. On May 16,2016,the Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals ruling in Zubik v. Burwell and the six cases it had consolidated under that title and returned them to their respective courts of appeals for reconsideration.
McDonnell v. United States,579 U.S. 550 (2016),was a United States Supreme Court case concerning the appeal of former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell's conviction for honest services fraud and Hobbs Act extortion. At issue on appeal was whether the definition of "official act" within the federal bribery statutes encompassed the actions for which McDonnell had been convicted and whether the jury had been properly instructed on this definition at trial.
Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania,591 U.S. ___ (2020),was a United States Supreme Court case involving ongoing conflicts between the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) over the ACA's contraceptive mandate. The ACA exempts nonprofit religious organizations from complying with the mandate,to which for-profit religious organizations objected.
